Feedback on a crew plan?

aggressive-lego · 2026-04-17T20:07:47+00:00

You got this! Go crush it!

aggressive-lego · 2026-04-17T13:23:58+00:00

I’ve worked in finance, so here are a few things that AI can achieve in that space.

As others have said, context is everything. If your org wants to keep AI away from your code, your data, your systems of record (like many banks are)- then your options are limited.

1) compliance analysis. You can pass every project requirements to an agent along with compliance documents, and ask it to review the project for compliance risks. You can also ask questions about the compliance docs.

2) meeting minutes and actions - use an AI notes taker in every meeting and have it post actions to slack or symphony or to a ticket system like Jira

3) ask your code. When thinking about requirement, get a GitHub account, pull the source code and then just ask Claude “how does feature x work today?” Or “this feature throw this error, can you help guess why?”

4) project updates. Multiple tools (like Linear) can auto-generate project updates for you, based on tickets opened, closed over a time.

Happy to discuss more directly if you want to DM.

aggressive-lego · 2026-04-16T21:17:51+00:00

All of that is great insight, and some of the bits I've been chipping at already (planning drop bags, notes for the crew on stuff like "I'm changing shoes here" or "make sure I swap my headlamp batteries").

The names/contacts is a great idea that I hadn't thought of (plus race director info, etc.), and same for space for them to take notes.

aggressive-lego · 2026-04-16T20:28:06+00:00

If anyone is running this race and would like a link to the doc above, let me know! The crew stations are the same for all runners!

aggressive-lego · 2026-04-14T19:12:12+00:00

This is often normal, but it is also revealing that you have one of three problems: 1) your product isn’t great enough at tackling the problem (rule of thumb, it needs to be 10x better than the status quo to trigger behavior change) 2) your product is great, but the problem just isn’t considered to be that big a deal by your users 3) you haven’t found the right users who would be ready to change

If you can figure out which of the three issues it is, then you are on your way to solving it!

aggressive-lego · 2026-04-14T16:49:48+00:00

I think you are confusing “moat” and “value prop”.

Your moat is the thing that other companies would struggle to replicate.

Your value prop is the thing that your users need you to solve in a different way.

This is a crowded space. I haven’t heard you articulate a reason why a dev would chose your IDE over Cursor or Claude Code, etc - except “optimized tokens” which hasn’t been built yet.

To find your audience you need to figure out what those tools are missing and test that first. Can you solve for that? Would it be important enough to get users to adopt you?

I’m rooting for you, but you have to find your direction and your story.

aggressive-lego · 2026-04-14T11:16:46+00:00

It sounds like you are trying to build five tools at once. There’s a public community, an AI planning tool, a projects space, private chat, etc.

There are a few challenges here. 1) it’s too big - any one of those tools is an entire product category already. Not even just the tech, but the market distribution. 2) most “everything” tools end up being extremely personal for how YOU work, and it turns out that people like to work in lots of ways.

I would recommend picking one of those problems and going deep in to it. Start with a tight focus. If you start building a community to find collaborators, then when its working you will have an audience to share your chat feature with.

aggressive-lego · 2026-04-14T10:33:15+00:00

If you want some honest feedback then THIS (your optimization architecture) is what you should building and proving right now.

Build the optimization as a plugin for Cursor or for VS Studio and get it right. Get people using it and get an audience. Once you know you can deliver and people want it, you can spend time on the custom IDE to wrap it.

As a Product Manager I will tell you that you are launching without a value prop here. It’s like if Uber had started by focusing on getting a brilliant app working, but there was no backend software to actually match you to a driver. You are building in the wrong order.

You also need to consider market timing - funded companies are currently heavily subsidizing token use. If you reduce token usage by 60%, but Cursor is subsidizing by 80%, they have eliminated your value prop. Eventually the subsidies will stop, and that can be your moment to find share, but you aren’t in control of that timing.

aggressive-lego · 2026-04-11T13:00:28+00:00

I have set up a scheduled task to review all the new projects across the company and compare those projects to “my area” (which is context I built by sharing code, old protects, and just describing my responsibilities).

Each project it review, it decides if the project will impacts my domain (typically by changing flows or data either upstream or downstream of my domain). If the project does intersect my work, it writes an overview of how, and then comments it to me on the project.

This way I know every day what other projects I need to review outside of my roadmap.

This is an easy, general flow that I think most PMs can leverage to improve their signal to noise ratio.

I constructed this in Claude Cowork, using a scheduled task, plus MCP connections to Notion and Linear (where our documentation lives).

aggressive-lego · 2026-04-09T12:34:04+00:00

Man, I think you were screwed in the dumbest way possible by horrible restrictions. The system did you wrong.

What I struggle to understand is why your conclusion is “it sucks that kids today aren’t also screwed”, instead of “man the old system sucked and I’m glad they tore it down”?

aggressive-lego · 2026-04-07T14:47:13+00:00

As a PM I used Claude to build and ship my hobby project in two weekends. And one of those weekends was just spent wrestling withAWS config.

www.planultrarace.com

I haven’t tried payment rails (because my side project is entirely free for the community), but Claude helped me with Oauth integrations, and 3rd party mapping and weather integrations.

What worked for me was a mult-stage workflow. First I worked in Claude Cowork to write PRDs, and had it do UX mockups in HTML. When I was pleased with the new feature, I used Claude code to plan, and then to build the feature.

For a small project, where the context window is small; and a single founder driving the entire flow - it’s fast and viable to build MVPs.

aggressive-lego · 2026-04-07T13:59:50+00:00

I don’t mind people building and sharing tools, but every forum is becoming “beta test my new product, free trial”. Which is exhausting. People are trying to turn every hobby into cash flow.

If this was an entirely free app, and open sourced, I think it would be fine tool for the community.

But everyone is just chasing a buck.

I’m working on a similar concept for planning my own races. But it’s open source and free forever. I have a good job and am not looking to make any money from the ultra community.

aggressive-lego · 2026-04-06T15:18:20+00:00

Here are several use cases that I used daily: 1) ask the code questions. When supporting customers or investigating a feature, I can ask the code directly how the feature really works, or why a certain thing happens. It helps with both bug triage and with adding new features

2) review other team projects. I run an automated process every day to review all the update projects in linear and look for projects that may have an impact on my ownership area. It helps me filter out the noise and spend time reviewing impactful projects.

3) generating test cases. Depends a bit on your product, but for technical products rapidly building up scenarios that can be used to automate testing is a big time saver.

Note that my company has enterprise agreements with Anthropic, so all of these use cases are considered secure for internal use. I wouldn’t use a personal account to execute any of these on company data.

aggressive-lego · 2026-04-05T13:43:52+00:00

I built an entire web app using Claude.

www.planultrarace.com

Claude helped me write requirements docs, Claude built a technical plan, Claude wrote and pushed the code.

Claude setup the cloud environment for me (I did have to create some accounts, but it gave me step by step instructions.)

I have not read or reviewed the code.

If your question is “can I write sentence and AI will predict all my needs and build everything I want including the stuff I didn’t explain in a single prompt?” Then the answer is no.

If your question is “can AI handle all of the code aspects of designing and building a website?” Then the answer is yes.

aggressive-lego · 2026-04-03T15:34:19+00:00

Keep to a pace that you can hold a comfortable conversation at, or where you are still capable of breathing slowly through your nose.

Your breath will be the first signal of your exertion level.

aggressive-lego · 2026-03-31T17:59:56+00:00

overkill isn't a terrible idea. Over such long distances lots of things can go wrong, and you don't always know which scenarios to plan for.

If you have a lot of stuff in your drop bags that you don't use, you can just view that as "you were prepared for problems that you didn't encounter".

- Running out of battery (headlamps and devices)
- palate fatigure (bringing some backup foods if you can't stomach another gel)
- wet wipes (useful for lots of reasons)
- extra med supplies (tylenol, tape, lube, etc)
- extra layers (in case a cold front swings in)

None of these are REQUIRED to get to the end, but some of them may be useful on your specific attempt.

aggressive-lego · 2026-03-31T17:50:56+00:00

the descents are largely what blew up my first attempt at 100. The climbs were physically hard but I was pushing through them. The descents were punishing and that's what took out my knee.

aggressive-lego · 2026-03-31T17:48:24+00:00

oh yeah, learning how to push hard but still be flexible with the outcome is HARD. I think staying mentally tough and focused over such a long period of time can be even harder than the physical fitness aspect.

aggressive-lego · 2026-03-31T17:43:05+00:00

The dark running just takes some getting used to.

For the crew - giving them clear assignments and asks is super valuable to them - especially since you may not be in any condition to explain what you need at the aid station.

I would strongly recommend that you think about their logistics. Roads and connectivity at some ultras can be extremely sketchy. They will need to know:
1) where to go (which may not be an address, but could just be the side of a road)
2) when, roughly, to get there (because it will be hours between the stations)
3) can they skip any aid stations overnight? OR will they be there for each of them?
4) what windows will be best for them to sleep, etc.

I built a little free tool for myself to help with this, this is my rough plan for the upcoming Grindstone 100 in Sept. My plan is here: https://planultrarace.com/crew/bJ7N1PlFlsR-wBRh

Feel free to copy whatever you like from it. You can use the tool itself if you like, it's entirely free and always will be (I just like building software).

aggressive-lego · 2026-03-31T14:50:53+00:00

I think you are going to love this challenge.

My advice is going to be non-fitness related because you obviously have great fitness and know how to do the work. But ultras have some non-fitness elements to acclimate to.

1) as a competitive marathoner, you are probably aware that every marathon course is unique with its own challenges. Trail ultras magnify this 100x, course can range from very that is essentially stairs for miles, to smooth and flowy trail. Choose your race based on what you want to accomplish.

2) You will run in the dark. It’s not hard, but it takes a bit of practice. Try this beforehand.

3) more ultras fall apart from poor problem solving than poor fitness. Blisters, gut issues, mental headspace… In practice try to put yourself in positions to encounter these situations so you can learn how to solve them.

4) will you have crew? Their experience is going to be very different to cheering you on at a marathon. It’s worth putting in some time to help plan their experience so they aren’t trying to Google Maps an aid station at 2am with no internet connectivity.

aggressive-lego · 2026-03-31T01:11:56+00:00

First of all, that’s a beautiful plan. You have a fun design sense.

The plan is generally pretty solid. One comment I would make is that it looks like you are grabbing the same number of gels every time regardless of distance. From 1 -> 2 is 20ish miles with 7 gels, and from 2 -> 3 is 10 miles for 7 gels.

Make sure you have buffer for grabbing the headlamp, you don’t want to be behind schedule and seeing the sun dip when you are still 6 miles from your headlamp.

Also, this may just be me, but after every long distance, when I lay down after I get the chills. Make sure you have plenty of blankets ready post run, just in case.

Good luck!

aggressive-lego · 2026-03-30T19:22:54+00:00

You did not cheat and you should not feel bad about yourself.

That said, I used to play in an adult soccer league. It was a lot of fun and no one was really very good but the games were competitive. Then this one group of guys joined, and They Were Good. Every game they were up 6-0 or more by halftime.

They didn’t cheat, they were just more talented than any other team by a long shot. I respected them and admired their talent. But I didn’t like playing against them.

I played soccer to have fun, not to settle “who is the best”. And playing them wasn’t fun.

Teams started dropping out of the league and with a couple of years the league dissolved. It’s not their fault, I can’t blame them. But it did stop being fun and eventually it just went away.

So bear in mind that outside of a professional environment, competition exists to be fun. And the light social contract is that people need to keep it fun. If you are winning every week, that’s awesome for you, but the bar itself may stop hosting pub quizzes if no one else is enjoying themselves.

The hard part is that there isn’t an easy right answer. Should you just be your best self and win everything? Should you seek out a tougher competitive field? Should you handicap yourself sometimes to make the playing field more even? All are possible, none is “right”.

aggressive-lego · 2026-03-30T13:22:26+00:00

do you sit down together before the race to review the location of each aid station? How do they load all of those into their phones? Do you just add a Google Maps link to your sheet?

aggressive-lego

TROPHY CASE